March 21st, 2005
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - B-Sides and Rarities
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
B-Sides and Rarities *****
Less than six months since the release of his double album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus and Nick Cave returns with another release. B-sides and Rarities is a whopping 56-track triple album and it’s only on listening to his work assembled in such a way that you realise the sheer range of his work over the last three decades. Containing studio outtakes, soundtrack contributions, covers, flexidisc tracks and deleted gems, it kicks off with Nick as a wild-eyed punk never afraid to spit bile from his musical pulpit. There’s ‘Scum’, a greasy back street rant about journalists and the bluesy narrative of ‘God’s Hotel’ with its’ all-together-now verses “Everybody’s got wings/a harp/plays piano in God’s Hotelâ€?.
From biblical soap-boxer to funereal crooner, his intensity hasn’t lessened even if the tempo of his music has. The only track he doesn’t sing on here is one of the most serendipitous finds thanks to Bad Seeds pianist Conway Savage’s fine vocals on ‘The Willow Garden’. Cave’s soundtrack work, particularly with long-time collaborator director Wim Wenders spawned the beautiful epic ballad ‘Cassiel’s Song’. Sundry collaborators include Low and Shane McGowan (on a very poignant cover of ‘What a Wonderful World’) and Cave himself covers everything from The Pogues ‘Rainy Night in Soho’ to Neil Young, Roy Orbison and Leonard Cohen. The stone-faced musical monolith even displays a sense of humour with versions of ‘King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Ki-Mi-O’, a traditional song that sounds like ‘I Want Candy’ and ‘Rye Whiskey’, a classic drinking song.
It’s in reworking his own songs that Cave displays most of his artistic acuity. Deanna morphs into an acoustic Gospel anthem mashed up with ‘Oh Happy Day’, while ‘The Mercy Seat’, without Blixa Bargeld’s possessed guitar manages to sound more pain-soaked than Johnny Cash’s emotional cover. This collection delineates Nick Cave’s music in all its crazy, beautiful incarnations and one of the most serendipitous finds is the only track he doesn’t sing on. Bad Seeds pianist Conway Savage provides the vocals on ‘The Willow Garden’. Cave is always inventive and despite the dip with Nocturama, this anthology is